Buffalo Bisons baseball – Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays

Saturday night special, walk-off for Herd

Two and a half innings after Norfolk tied the game at, 5-5, the Herd ended it with a single off the bat of Jesus Feliciano into center-field for a, 6-5, win Saturday night at Coca-Cola Field.
Luis Figueroa leadoff the 11th- inning with a double into left-center-field and then Norfolk walked Nick Evans to set up the doubleplay. Fernando Martinez did just what the Tides wanted grounding into a doubleplay that left only Figueroa on base.
Norfolk avoided Valentino Pascucci, working pitches out of the zone and then intentionally walking him after getting to a, 3-0, count. Pascucci was followed to the plate by Feliciano who battled for eight pitches, fouling off five pitches before pushing a single just to the right of second base scoring Figueroa.

“Feliciano has been a really good player his whole career hitting wise and this is really his first time he hasn’t felt good at the plate,” manager Tim Teufel said. “But tonight was one of his better at bats that I’ve seen him give us in the last couple outings.”

It is Feliciano’s second walk-off hit of the 2011 season and his fourth at Coca-Cola Field during his career.

Just a half inning earlier the Bisons looked to be in trouble of letting the game get away after Brian Sweeny gave up a leadoff double to Tides catcher Tyler Henson. But he managed to get a pop-out to short center field and then struck-out the following two batters stranding Henson on second.

“Sweeny ended up pitching really well after that, getting a couple key outs and giving us a chance to come up in the bottom half and win the game,” said Teufel.

The Herd erased a, 3-2, deficit in the seventh inning on a Fernando Martinez blast but Norfolk tied the game in the eighth-inning, 5-5.

Josh Bell started the eighth inning for Norfolk by hitting a leadoff homerun into left-field to pull the Tides within one-run. Norfolk managed to manufacture the second run after Tyler Henson singled into left-field and moved to second on a wild-pitch. John Hester followed him with a single into left-field scoring Henson.

Luis Figueroa scored the Herd’s first run of the game, and leadoff the seventh-inning with a single into left-field. The red-hot Nick Evans followed him with a drive just inside of third base allowing Figueroa to move to third while Evans cruised into second.

With no outs Fernando Martinez approached the plate looking for his first hit of the game. He drove a homerun off the foul pole in right-field for his sixth-homerun of the season.

“It was nice to see Sweeny do a nice job out there and Feliciano hasn’t had that big-big hit in a while and he got one tonight so it was a great way to end the game,” Teufel said.

Game Notes: Nick Evans extended his hit-streak to 15-games in the first inning of Saturdays game driving a double down the right-field line…Valentino Pascucci grounded out in the first inning but in the process Luis Figueroa scored giving Pascucci his 47 RBI of the 2011 season…Nick Evans got his second hit of the game in the seventh-inning driving a double down the left-field line…Evans has multiple hits in, 11-15, games during his hit-streak…It was the Bisons fourth walk-off win of the 2011 season and the second time they have won on a Jesus Feliciano hit.

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